Friday of the Fourth Week of Advent (Mass in the Morning)

 Lectionary: 200

The LORD also reveals to you
that he will establish a house for you. 
And when your time comes and you rest with your ancestors,
I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins,
and I will make his Kingdom firm.
I will be a father to him,
and he shall be a son to me.
Your house and your Kingdom shall endure forever before me;
your throne shall stand firm forever.’”

"Context is everything!" we're told but many people overlook the context of God's promises and thereby, their meaning. Can we hope without a promise? Without confidence that the One who promised will keep his word? And what is that exact word, anyway? 

Some people hope for eternal life, or they hope at least to see their loved ones again in the hereafter. They insist that death cannot be the end of their spouses, parents, or children. "It's not time yet!" they say to the priest who celebrated the Mass of Resurrection, the undertaker who carried the body away, or the groundskeeper who filled the grave. "It's not yet time to give up my fidelity to the one I love. I will be true forever!" 

Stepping away from the grave we search for the promises in the scriptures and we discover many. Among them, Nathan's words to David, 

"I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his Kingdom firm forever."

Those who study history know forever is a very long time; it is longer than the widow imagines. It is longer than a century or a kingdom. David's throne in Jerusalem survived over four hundred years, until the city was sacked and the temple razed by a Babylonian army. No Davidic king would ever sit on that vanished throne again. 

But the Word of God abides forever, and the promise remains. Christians take it quite seriously. We believe Mary's son is the "mighty Savior, born of the house of his servant David." Although he died as every child of every woman must die, he reigns forever as the Son of David and Son of God because the Word of the Lord abides forever. 

If we hope to see our loved ones in a blessed afterlife, the rock foundation of that hope is the promise made to David and fulfilled in Jesus. We will be raised up with him or not at all. If we surrender that hope our beloved fades into empty, pointless vacuity. They might never have existed. And who will remember them when we are gone?

Christmas is hard on some people, especially that first Christmas after a funeral. Some of its beauty and charm went with the loved one. But for the faithful, Christmas remains a most sacred and reassuring promise. It is as dependable as the Earth itself, as the moon in its cycles and the sun in its brilliant heat. 

For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life, but each one in proper order: Christ the first fruits; then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ; then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to his God and Father, when he has destroyed every sovereignty and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. (1 Corinthians 15: 22-26)

In the context of these promises, we find our hope.